Enough is enough. He's never won anything in the post-season.
Hello, dear sires of r/collegebasketball. Given the recent decision of the young Mr. Wiggins to continue his basketball development away from the auspices of my noble client, some snickering has begun by the Malcontents of the Land of Mary.
Unfortunately, it appears the Malcontentment has spread through aerosolized droplets such that professional NBA analysts also are participating in this LIBELOUS, SLANDEROUS commentary of my client, the Honorable Markothy Leo Turgeòn.
> "One NBA executive told us that he has identified [...] Mark Turgeon, as having one of the most glaring lists of players who exceeded their collegiate production in the NBA, potentially leading to a market inefficiency. Some of Turgeon's past players include Khris Middleton (No. 39), DeAndre Jordan (No. 35), Alex Len (No. 5, but hasn't really panned out), Donald Sloan (undrafted, played five seasons in the NBA), Gal Mekel (a middling player at Wichita State, who vastly exceeded those expectations as a pro), and most recently Kevin Huerter..."
Hardwood has never known a finer man so beaten down and insulted for but a few morsels of mediocrity over a 25 year career.
Given that it is the offseason, I ask all venerable redditors with decency and honor to JOIN ME IN DEFENDING Sir Markothy.
I got together with some of my other Maryland grad friends, and we compiled the First, Second & Third All-Turgeon Maryland Teams.
It works like it sounds - taking into consideration every player who has played for Turgeon at Maryland, we each made our three teams, then points were awarded based on how each player was evaluated (5 points for 1st Team, 3 for 2nd Team, 1 for 3rd Team). With Turgeon now coaching at Maryland for 10 years, it felt like the perfect cutoff point. I put it all together, and these are the results:
First Team
G Anthony Cowan
G Melo Trimble (unanimous selection)
G Dez Wells
G/F Jake Layman
F Jalen Smith
Second Team
G Eric Ayala
G Kevin Huerter
G Aaron Wiggins
F Bruno Fernando
C Alex Len
Third Team
G Rasheed Sulaimon
G Darryl Morsell
F Justin Jackson
F Robert Carter
C Diamond Stone
I'm curious what other Maryland fans/people who have watched Maryland the last 10 years think. If you want to read more about this or see how we came up with these teams (which I do not totally agree with, to be clear haha), you can find that here.
I want to do this for other schools, too, but I don't have the personal network to do it with any team but Maryland (and maybe Ohio State). I tried to get All-Roy Williams UNC Teams going a few weeks ago but didn't get a ton of responses, so if you're a UNC fan and want to chime in, please do! And if you'd like to see something like this done for your school/coach, let me know and I'll try to organize it!
In short, Maryland MBB is at a point where the AD has to decide whether or not to extend Mark Turgeon's contract; however, there are other events happening in CBB that seems like Turgeon might leave on his own for another coaching job.
Timeline of Events
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Mar. 24: Rumors circulate that Mark Turgeon might be looking for another coaching gig at a Power 5 basketball school in the Midwest.
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Mar. 30: BetOnline puts Mark Turgeon as the most probable replacement for HC at Oklahoma
In summary, it seems like there's a considerable likelihood that Turgeon will be leaving Maryland for Oklahoma with no buyout. For those of you who are CBB-savvy, who would be the most feasible replacement for Maryland' MBB Head Coach?
A lot of Maryland fans hate Mark Turgeon and want him fired, but i feel like the narratives people use to bash him are incorrect and here's why.
"His teams constantly underperform" Well this isn't true, looking at since they've joined the Big Ten they've significantly outperformed their preseason media poll prediction in 2014 (Poll:10th Actual: 3rd) and 2016 (Poll:6th Actual:3rd) while underperforming in 2015 (Poll:1st Actual:3rd) and 2017 (Poll: 5th Actual: 8th). The 2015 team is looked at as a huge underperformance and a stain on Turgeons resume, which has always been weird to me, because that was a team with 3 new starters, only two of which were upper class men. And then there’s this year where we’re going to finish 4th or 5th and we’re predicted to finish 7th.
"He can't develop players" This is just incorrect when you look at guys like Jake Layman, Dez Wells, Kevin Huerter, Bruno Fernando. He constantly turns guys that weren’t rated as high recruits into very talented players.
"He's made the tournament 3 out of 7 years at a school that should be better than that" The big problem with the 3 out of 7 years crowd is that he inherited a fucking mess from Gary. I love Gary Williams, he did more for UMD than Turgeon ever will, but by the end in those last 3 ACC years the team Maryland had was not talented and I think far more of that blame deserves to go on the way Gary left the program than the way Turgeon started, I mean Terrell Stoglin was the far and away the teams most talented player that Turgeon inherited.
This team has been both fun and good when they weren’t expected to be and I’m not really sure why everyone seems to be so hellbent on firing a guy who for the most part has exceeded expectations. I actually wanna know what non-Maryland fans think here because maybe I’m just stuck in a super toxic fanbase or maybe my expectations are too low.
https://twitter.com/mattlevine__/status/1210951737365979137?s=21
As I watch my Ags commit seppuku in most games we play and wonder if Kennedy will coach another season in College Station, I often wonder what we would have looked like if Turgeon stayed.
Is this interesting? Probably not, but hey... now you know.
